


Hate, Love, and Lele Pons

by canufeelthemagictonight



Series: ETNuary [23]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Canon Compliant, Character Study, ETNuary, Gen, Happy Lele Day!, Hate, Internal Conflict, Lele is beautifully complicated, Love, and I love her for it, and passionate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:17:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22380115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: Lele spends all night fighting a war between the love and hate she feels.A character study of Lele Pons, in relation to hate and love.An Escape the Night one-shot. Day 23 of ETNuary.
Series: ETNuary [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587721
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	Hate, Love, and Lele Pons

**Author's Note:**

> Day 23 is Lele Pons! Sorry if this is a bit late. __

Lele Pons hates like billion-foot-tall tidal waves of flame, crashing down onto charcoal beaches with the force of catastrophe. She attacks with an arsenal, her lips dripping insults, her balled fists weapons in and of themselves. She focuses her disdain on an unfortunate point in space and then proceeds to obliterate that point with loathing powerful enough to nuke a small town.

She is, in a word, passionate about her hatred.

(Matt learns this the hard way. Then again, he hates her just as intensely as she hates him, and he, too, can bring the heat of contempt when he felt like it. In a twisted sense, they are perfect for each other.)

The question is, why? What made Lele like this? What lit the fire of hostility in her heart?

Death, that's what. Death intrudes upon Lele's relatively carefree world when Shane is poisoned, their car blows up, and she finds herself trapped in a game of murder. It warns her that she could die. And Lele fears death. She's at an age where she should be beautifully invincible, so the thought of dying at twenty _terrifies_ her. She'll do _anything_ to make sure that she doesn't end up a corpse tonight.

Thus, when Matt targets her, she sees him as a threat to her safety, and she responds as one responds to a threat. A battle turns into a war. Both Matt and Lele learn what it truly means to hate someone.

(Not that it does either of them any good in the end.)

But Lele is more than her hate. Lele loves just as intensely; her love burns like a supernova's star-fueled fire, lighting up the universe with its fervor and splendor. She is grateful, she is kind, she is even sweet at times, and if someone cares for her, she cares a thousand times more for them. She focuses her love on a fortunate point and then proceeds to raise that point higher than it ever could've dreamed.

Eva learns this in Lele's arms after the Ungodly Machine. The girls embrace, and for a moment, they feel like they could take on the world.

A pity that they can't.

Lele spends all night fighting a war between the love and hate she feels. Sometimes, hate has the upper hand, as is the case when she and Matt fight. But once he's gone, her hate for him begins to fade into irrelevancy, and love, slowly but surely, climbs out of the battle's ashes. Eventually, near the end of the night, love claims its ultimate victory when she chooses to stop the cycle of hate and vote for herself instead.

The others follow her lead. And even though her decision ultimately kills her, her legacy lives on for years afterward, as Joey tries his best to make every last vote a self-vote in memory of the blonde Hustler who put her foot down and said "no more."

It's fitting that her last thoughts are not of hate, but of love. Love for Joey, for Eva, for Oli, and a hope that they'll escape.

Lele Pons loves like fire, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Next up: DeStorm Power!


End file.
